An attempt to make a clean getaway turned into a scene right out of a screwball comedy for one Australia thief who slammed into a glass door on his way out of a shopping mall in Perth.

"He made a pretty heavy impact. When he actually hit the glass he was knocked out," said one shop owner.

Passers-by tried to help the thief up, unaware that he had just made off with a 50-year-old woman's handbag.

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Just then an accomplice showed up and began threatening to shoot the Good Samaritans.

"He said 'I've got a gun, I've got a gun, I'm gonna shoot you, I'm gonna shoot you'," said bystander Jake Adams. "So, I picked the guy up in front of me, like they do in the movies and held him in front of me."

The thief and his accomplice still managed to escape the scene in a green Lexus, which police say was also stolen.